


In Bad Taste

by Laroyena



Category: DCU (Comics), Justice League & Justice League Unlimited (Cartoons), Smallville
Genre: 'Cause Clark was feral but honestly he didn't mind, Accidental Voyeurism, Age Difference, Alpha Female, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Barry just gets an eyeful, Crack, Dick is an adult here but I know some people are still uncomfortable with that, Dubious Consent, F/M, Feral Behavior, Humor, M/M, POV Third Person, Ridiculousness, Rutting, Sex Pollen, i guess, most sex off screen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-06 01:26:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8729257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laroyena/pseuds/Laroyena
Summary: Of the Big Three, Diana’s taste in omegas was by far the least problematic.(DC Omegaverse; in which sex pollen hits the JLA Triumvirate hard, and Barry Allen laments his teammates' bad taste in mates.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> Stupid drabble written at three in the morning after realizing that the big three (Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) are all alphas in my omegaverse. Which got me to thinking of the most embarrassing situations I can put them in, and who's the best person to witness it all.
> 
> I'm so sorry Barry.
> 
> This isn't exactly the Mamabird verse, or maybe I haven't decided?? Mix of DC canons as usual; Clex dynamic is mostly from Smallville, other dynamics are drawn from the JL and JLU cartoons. If Barry seems a bit too peppy, it's because it's based off JL/JLU Flash (who is actually West, I know... uggh DC animated universe WHY)
> 
> edit: for a story about threes, I forgot to write Clark's mini-POV! Added it in, sorry for the unnecessary Clex angst.

“So Themiscyra only has girls?” The Flash just wouldn’t shut his mouth. “So like… do you guys just ship all the boy babies out into the ocean? You guys do have boy babies, right? And so far I’ve only met omega and alpha females from the island—”

“Can we focus, Mister Allen?” Diana overrode him.

“Hey, it’s a legitimate question! I don’t want you going all… I dunno, Tarzan on the male population if you don’t know anything about them.”

“Barry,” Batman said. “Stop.”

“What!”

“To answer your question: no, the alpha and omega females of Themiscyra cannot birth male children. It’s a genetic anomaly in our blood. As for dealings with men, I assure you, Mister Allen…” Diana folded her arms and turned to give the man the iciest glare she had. “…I know exactly how to handle them.”

“Ooo-kay,” Barry winced at the glares the other JLA members were throwing his way. “Just making sure.”

“Strap yourselves in,” Batman ordered, herding them unceremoniously into the spaceship. “We’re already behind mission. The fate of the world is at stake.”

“Isn’t it always,” Barry muttered one last time before the doors locked firmly shut around him.

\--

Barry called it. He fucking called it, and now he had to drag the Justice League Triumvirate up by their collars and back to the ship. By himself. While all three were doped up on some crazy alien drug that took them all out in a snap.

Batman was, unsurprisingly, the most helpful.

“It’s a toxin that seems to target and affect alpha hormones,” the Batman said calmly, like his arm thrown across the Flash’s shoulders wasn't trembling. Barry cursed under his breath and dumped him in the cabin. “It sends them into a—a feral state. Like a rut. Strap me in, Flash.”

“Yeah, Bats, sure,” Flash had him buckled down tight in a blink. “So like, this stuff… it makes you horny? You’re not going to maul me, are you?”

“You’re a beta. I’m straight. Worry more about Diana and Clark. Do exactly as I say and we might be able to get them in their containment cells.”

“You have _containment cells_ for our friends on this aircraft? Wait, no, don’t answer that. Of course you do.”

“ _Flash_.”

“Right—right. Okay boss, give it to me.”

Which wasn’t his best choice of words, but Barry was under a lot of stress, okay? GL and Martian Manhunter were still off canvassing the enemy citadel and the Hawks were god-knows-where beating off death rays in the sky or something.

And here Flash was. The only beta in a group of four who managed _not_ to be turned into a slobbering animal.

Okay, that was a little extreme. Batman had gone dead silent after successfully walking Barry through trapping their friends in their respective containment fields. He wasn’t unconscious. Just… breathing hard and looking like he had a fever, but otherwise as stoic and Batmanly as ever.

Diana, who’d charged at him immediately once catching sight of him, was just warrior Amazon gone berserk. Violence over horniness. Right. When she finished railing against the impressive Batman-invented box thing keeping her trapped in her corner, she began pacing like a caged tiger.

“Unleash me this instant, red man,” she spat, one hand curled around the hilt of her dagger. “I will make your death mercifully quick if you do so. Fail to heed my orders, and I will torture you like they do the souls in Tarturus.”

“Wow, okay,” Barry zoomed back to Bruce’s side in a heartbeat. “Easy on the bloodlust, Diana.”

“That is _Princess_ Diana of Themiscyra,” the alpha woman bared her teeth. “And I demand respect fit for a warrior, not this dishonor of being caged like a beast!”

“No, no, no, you’re getting this all wrong,” Barry pointed out. He jerked his chin at Clark’s corner. “ _He’s_ the beast.”

Because Bruce might be disturbingly silent and Diana more violent than usual, but that was pretty much their usual thing taken to the extreme. He’d never really faced down a feral Superman before.

“Hey Supes,” he didn’t even bother approaching the containment field keeping the Kryptonian at bay. The bars were laced with just enough kryptonite to keep the Man of Steel back without being cripplingly uncomfortable. “Can you like… try to stop walking on all fours? You can fly, why are you walking on all fours?”

Clark ignored him and continued to prowl around his cage on his hands and knees. He couldn’t even _talk_ , that was how bad he was. Humanity's greatest hero reduced to pent-up Kryptonian rage in one skin-tight spandex suit, and Barry couldn’t even bargain with him. As if on cue, Clark reared up and crashed into the containment field with a roar.

Barry was pretty sure Batman’s tech could keep Superman at bay. It was built by _Batman_. Still, he retreated to the cockpit and crossed his fingers just in case. Green Lantern, J’onn… he’d even take either of the Hawks at this point. All he knew was, their big three were crippled in the middle of space and they still haven’t finished the mission.

\--

On the bright side, they finished the mission.

Bruce was somewhat of a help at the end, working through his drug-induced lethargy to call out gruff commands over the communicators. Barry had to admire the guy’s control. Sure, it wasn’t like there were any enticing omegas on board to send the three crazies into a frenzy, but that didn’t seem to stop Clark from going ballistic on them all.

“Why don’t you let Diana out, too?” was the first thing Hal said when he and J’onn returned. “She seems fine.”

“I am not fine, beta man!” the princess herself overrode him. “I have been confined without the decency of a battle. Release me, and I will make all of your deaths swift.”

Barry stared at Hal, who shrugged: “She sounds perfectly normal to me.”

“Princess Diana,” J’onn intervened before heads could start rolling. “I apologize for my comrade’s lack of respect regarding your containment. We are allies and not enemies of Themiscyra. You have been exposed to a foreign element that our less… warrior-like friend could not handle alone, and so he chose to quarantine you until we returned. Please forgive him.”

Diana narrowed her eyes first at J’onn, and then at the Flash. Barry tried to smile as winningly as he could. Diana’s blue eyes narrowed further.

“Release me,” she addressed J’onn, evidently deciding he was the highest ranking member there. “And I will agree to peaceful negotiation.”

“Let her go,” J’onn told the Flash.

“Uh, J’onn, I don’t know if you heard but just a second ago she was saying she’ll make our deaths swift—”

“Princess?”

Diana folded her arms. “On my honor as the Princess of Themiscyra, I swear I will not kill you during peace negotiations. Such an act would be dishonorable.”

“Lovely,” Hal said. “You know what, you guys handle the Kryptonian in the corner. I’ll go fetch Hawkwoman and Hawkman and then how about we get the hell out of Dodge?”

They all turned in unison to stare at Clark, who had only gotten worse during the course of his containment. Bruce had been slowly looking better, as was Diana by her increased willingness to talk without bloodshed—but Clark. Clark had gone from crawling about on all fours to _ripping off his shirt_ and tearing it to shreds with his _teeth_. He was powerful and aggressive and was sporting a rather impressive erection, and he was awesome.

In a completely literal, awe-inspiring way like watching a bear right before it launched itself at its prey. Unfortunately for them, it was usually a good idea to stay far, far away from the bear in this scenario.

“Get the Hawks,” Batman said. He crawled over to the pilot’s seat like he was in any condition to fly. “We return to Earth. The containment field should hold Superman long enough for us to transfer him to Metropolis. Now go.”

“What the hell is in Metropolis that we don’t have here?”  Flash mused, and threw up his hands when no one responded. “Seriously, why doesn’t anyone answer my questions?”

“Because your questions are infantile, red man,” Diana informed him. She shoved him unceremoniously off his seat and settled beside J’onn. “Now Martian, peace negotiations. We will begin them now.”

“Bats, c’mon,” Barry hissed when he tried entering the cockpit and Bruce locked him out. “If Diana guts me with a knife, then it’s your fault!”

“Barry, I am busy repressing my urges to alternatively kill, fuck and claim,” Bruce said in the flattest tone imaginable. “I’m sure you can live with a stabbing.”

Barry put his head in his hands, and the spacecraft roared to life beneath them.

\--

By the time they docked at the Watchtower, Bats had thankfully regained enough control to operate machinery and Diana was no longer trying to kill anyone.

“Sorry,” Diana said when she nearly clocked Barry in the face for sneaking up behind her. “Alpha senses are still on edge. Just… don’t do anything startling or threatening and we’ll be good.”

“So no more threats to kill me?”

“Watch it,” she warned before catching sight of Batman assisting docking duty. She frowned. “Bruce, maybe you should head home.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re better but you’re not fine. Go home—I can call Dick and make sure—”

“No,” Bruce said forcefully. He took a breath. “Clark needs help first. And I’m the only one who can get past security.”

Diana just huffed and stalked towards the showers. To clean up and get ready to go home, maybe—or to find someone to work off that sexual tension. Barry wasn’t one to judge. Of the Big Three, Diana’s taste in omegas was by far the least problematic.

“So Clark’s still out of it,” the Flash said, nodding at where Batman was guiding Clark’s kryptonite cell out of the spaceship and towards a zeta platform. “You gonna run some tests on him?”

“No,” Bruce said.

Barry blinked. “Whoa, seriously? No antidotes? No experiments? You’re just going to leave him like this?”

“I said no tests, not that I was going to leave him feral,” Batman clarified. “I already know what the antidote for this is.”

“Uh... care to share with the class?” Barry said—and blurred away just before Shayera’s mace smacked into his head. “Hey!”

“I do not know how it is here, but back on Thanagar, alphas at the height of their rut could only have their urges sated by their chosen lovers,” she announced, swinging her mace menacingly. She hooked it onto her belt and held out a hand to her husband. “Since arriving here on Earth, I notice your kind is less… choosy about their mates. Not so on my home planet. We mate for life, and therefore are bound more strongly to our mates in our times of need.”

“Ruts cannot usually pass by without consummation,” Hawkman tried to explain, though from his wife’s raised chin she clearly thought her own words self-explanatory. “Unlike human ruts, our kind will become more and more feral unless their thirst is slaked. I imagine it is a similar situation with Superman. The Kryptonians were a notoriously monogamous race.”

“So he needs to bang his mate?” Flash said. How surprisingly caveman-like for a technologically advanced race. “But Superman isn’t mated or married.”

“Married, no,” Batman called out, having managed to drag the containment cell onto the zeta platform. Clark hissed at him angrily from inside. “Mated, yes. If I don’t return in two hours, send the League to the LexCorp Penthouse for extraction.”

“Wait, did he just say the _LexCorp Penthouse_ —” Barry managed before there was a flash of light… and they were gone.

\--

Curiosity killed the cat.

Or the Flash, in this instance, though he had a right to be worried. Batman had just announced his plan to drop a debilitated Superman right on his arch-nemesis’s doorstep, and he expected them to all just run with it? No. Barry trusted Bats, but the guy was addled on alpha-drug hormones; suffering from a lack of sleep; and had run out of enough Nightwing brightness to keep him thinking like a sane person. Since kidnapping Dick from the Titans wasn’t really an option, that only left following Batman instead.

With enough speed and luck, he managed to make it to LexCorp just in time to see Batman and feral Superman being led through a side door below. Made sense. If there was any lab in Metropolis that could fix Supes, it'd probably be one of Luthor's. He zoomed inside before the door could swing shut and made sure to keep a step back as Batman…

As Batman approached Lex Luthor himself. The omega was without his bodyguards for once, though looked no less dangerous for it. It was a feat only Luthor could pull off when he was trapped in a hallway with two alphas, one of which was slavering away on the floor in rage.

Before Barry could decide if this was a trap, a negotiation or simply a bout of drug-induced bat-insanity, Luthor shattered all of those choices by staring at Superman’s lumbering form and saying: “Clark.”

Barry almost stopped vibrating his molecules for a second. Luthor knew Superman’s _secret identity._ That was huge; even more so than Luthor crouching down before the containment field without fear and frowning at the alpha inside.

“What happened,” Luthor’s voice was deadly quiet. He rounded on the Batman. “What did…” He gave the Dark Knight a once-over and then narrowed his eyes. “Alpha-enhancement drug. You were affected too.”

“Human ruts will end on their own after a certain period of time,” Batman said. “Not Kryptonians.”

“Yes, I’m well versed in Kryptonian biology,” Luthor said. Superman let out an angry snarl at being ignored, and looked just as surprised as Barry when Luthor turned around and snapped: “For god’s sake, Clark, can you quiet down? I’m discussing your hostage agreement. It’s for your own good.”

Batman glowered at him. “You’re not keeping him hostage.”

“Of course I am. By the way, this is a very nice containment box you have, Batman,” Luthor cast a cursory glance around the technology. “I’d love to reverse engineer it.”

“You care about him as much as I do,” Batman refused to be led off-topic. "You won’t take advantage of him like this.”

Luthor didn’t respond. He just went back to crouching before Clark and pressing his hand to the forcefield surrounding the kryptonite-lined bars. “It would all be so easy if I didn’t care,” Luthor said. He didn’t look away from Clark, whose big pupil-blown eyes were locked on to Luthor’s with eerie precision. "Our fighting could be over in a snap.”

“If he’s not back by tomorrow morning, I’m coming for you,” Bruce said. And then he pressed a button on the contraption and the containment field deactivated.

Barry snapped back into existence in horror when Clark rolled out and immediately launched himself at Luthor.

“Flash!” Batman said once he caught sight of him, and Barry held up his hands. “What are you doing?”

“Seeing why you just handed Luthor his arch-nemesis?” the speedster replied, and held back a yelp with Batman grabbed his forearm and dragged him back towards the side-entrance. “What were you thinking disabling the containment field? He’s going to _maul_ him!”

“Like I said,” Batman frog-marched him up the steps. “I already knew what the antidote is. Clark will be fine. _You_ , on the other hand…”

Which was when Barry sped out of his grip and went back down the hall, because even Lex Luthor didn’t deserve getting ripped limb from limb. He got an eyeful instead. Because Clark wasn’t tearing into the supervillain so much as he was pressing his tongue into his mouth, and for the most powerful omega in Metropolis Lex Luthor had never seemed in any way omega… until now.

“Barry,” Batman said outside the building once Barry had made his mortified escape.

Barry put up a hand. “Don’t say it, Bats.”

“I warned you.”

“You did no such thing!”

“Watchtower,” Batman growled, and the fight went out of the Flash at once. “Now.”

“Not the boss of me,” Barry mumbled, but anything that could wipe away the image of Luthor about to get fucked within an inch of his life was good enough for him. Even if it was Batman’s anger.

Superman and Lex Luthor. Jesu _s christ.  
_

\--

“God, their taste in mates makes my head hurt,” Barry whined to Hal in the cafeteria later that night. “I mean really, my family and Iris’s family are like… normal. Good American people who do honest work, not—not blow up laboratories or conduct illicit experiments or barely be of drinking age. People think Diana’s romps with Kasnian princesses are scandalous; imagine what the world would do if they caught wind of Bruce and Dick?”

“Not our business,” Hal raised his punch glass. “Kid's of age, you know, and even if he wasn't I’m not poking at that hornet’s nest. Not with Batman _and_ Nightwing liable to break my kneecaps, ‘cause let me tell you that brat can be _brutal_.”

Which was true. Wally and Dick were good enough friends, but even Barry’s nephew had to admit how… concise and calculating the boy could be when angered. For all his laughter, he was as good as manipulating situations as his mentor.

(And in all honesty, with exes like Talia al Ghul and Catwoman, Barry did prefer it if Batman kept it within the superhero group and not, you know. With members of his rogue gallery.)

“Not a lot of people can put up with that angsty battiness long term,” Hal continued, finishing his punch and cracking open another bottle from beneath the table. “So whatevs. As long as the guy leads this team and does the world right, I don’t really care.”

Barry huffed. “Fine, but what about Superman? _Superman!_ Forget international scandals or questionably immoral guardian-ward relationships—he’s straight-up mated to a _supervillain!_ Lex Fucking Luthor, who’s... you know. Tried to kill us on multiple occasions?”

“Okay yeah, I’ll drink to that,” Hal raised his glass a second time, and Barry tapped it with his own before downing it in one shot. “That’s kind of messed up.”

“To our leaders sticking their dicks in the wrong places,” Barry said, and whoo-boy. What the _hell_ was in this punch?

“Hear hear,” Hal said, undeterred by the fact that he got a speedster _tipsy._ Which was when the Flash officially decided he didn’t care and poured himself another glass, because after the day he just had? He deserved it.

\--

(“Sex pollen?” Dick said around a mouthful of cereal. He swallowed when Bruce cast him a disapproving look. “Or, uh. Whatever you called it. Alpha-enhancement drug. Fuck or die. Shove Clark into Luthor’s arms and hope he doesn’t kill him in the morning.”

“Lex won’t kill Clark,” Bruce said. He sat down in his big office chair and winced when the various bruises he’d acquired during their space mission protested. “And don’t eat in my study.”

“I’m not in your study. I’m standing right outside your study.”

“Dick.”

“So what, Diana called me to make sure you were taken care of and you’re… all good? No more urges?” Dick finished his bowl and put it onto Bruce’s thousand-dollar drawer by the door. Brat. “So when I heard you tore right into Flash today…”

“He deserved it.”

“Bruce, you just handed Clark off to his arch-nemesis cum ex-best friend cum _mate_ without any explanation.”

“There wasn’t any time for explanation.”

“No time or no brain space?" Dick raised a brow. He considered Bruce with knowing, detective-trained eyes and concluded: "You’re still affected by whatever this is. Let me help.”

“I don’t need it,” Bruce snapped, looking down at the various papers on his desk if only to keep himself distracted from the tantalizing omega scent drawing closer. “Go back to Bludhaven, Dick. Everything here is fine.”

“Hmm,” Dick walked around the desk and perched on the arm of his office chair. He looped his arms around Bruce’s neck in a familiar gesture and smiled when Bruce... pouted. Not that he'd ever admit that. “You're _j_ _ust_ fine. By the way, B…” Bruce shivered when Dick pressed his mouth to his ear. “…the paper you’re reading’s upside-down.”

And really, Bruce should’ve known better than to let Dick inside his study at all. But his control was already on its last hooks with the day he had, and Dick wasn't going to stop bothering him until he gave in. He turned and kissed the omega's neck softly, and Dick threw him a dazzling grin in return.)

\--

("Oh god," Clark said, rolling over onto his side and wincing in pain. It was like being covered in Kryptonite dust or taking a quick dip into a Kryptonite pool or— or being hungover, the one or two times he managed it whenever he ran out of sun juice and was stuck as a normal guy. Point was, this was pain. He hated pain.

Someone set a glass of water beside him.

"No," he managed and tried to snuffle under the blankets. "Nooo..."

"Clark, you are over thirty-years old. Get up and drink your water."

"Oh fuck," and now some of the memories were coming back. Really blurry, really feeling-oriented memories, and he was never going to be able to look at his friends in the eye again. "Fuck, what did I _do_."

"Me," Lex said, sounding bored. He was already in a plum collared shirt and gray slacks and was currently typing something out on his phone while sitting on the other side of the bed. Clark narrowed his eyes at him. "You're welcome."

"You didn't poison the water, did you."

"Don't be gauche," Lex said, slipping his phone in his pocket. He reached over and carefully placed a hand over Clark's neck, as easy as pie, and Clark's breath caught. He rarely felt this vulnerable. Not these days. Lex's voice was almost gentle: "Clark, no matter how ours lives unfold, there is no shame in coming to me like this. It isn't your fault."

"I'm not ashamed of coming to you," Clark wriggled out of the blankets and flushed when he realized he was naked. Lex didn't offer him any clothes, and so he had to just sit there and glare at him. Naked. "And Bruce brought me this time. I should go thank him."

"Of course," Lex closed up at once. He suddenly stood up and went to the door, and the stiff way he held himself finally clued Clark in. The omega would've normally been in the office by now, not watching over his ex-boyfriend cum arch-nemesis. He'd stuck around to see Clark wake up, had perhaps wanted to say something. "Don't bother looking for your suit. I'm keeping it as a souvenir."

In other words, he was going to dissect it. Lovely. Clark wanted to reach out, but he couldn't. He never could, and there Lex went—back up to his ivory tower of doom.

"Not ashamed of coming to you," Clark whispered to the empty room. "I'm ashamed of leaving you, Lex. Every time.")

\--

("Alpha men in rut clearly cannot function alone. No wonder Mother blames them for so much of the world's strife," Diana told Steve after thoroughly having her way with him once he came home from his work in the White House. "Though Bruce made an admirable attempt. It's... fascinating how they seem to focus on the sexual component of a rut. Amazonians are warriors. Ruts make us more dangerous. More efficient. It is a blessed boon in the midst of battle and an even more... pleasurable boon afterwards."

"You're saying alpha men all think with their dicks," Steve concluded. He stretched out languidly beside her, powerful and beautiful, and Diana fought the urge to roll him over for another round. No omega pleased her more than this one, though she had to be mindful of not tiring him out too much to work. "I dunno, Diana. Some would say that paints an inaccurate picture of them."

"And what has your experience with alpha men taught you?"

"I don't date men," Steve said. His phone buzzed from the bed stand, and Diana knew how much it meant when he actually ignored it in favor of continuing their conversation. "So I can't offer you personal experience. Just that in my opinion, alpha women tend to be more... cool-headed. Powerful. It's what I love about you."

The phone buzzed again.

"Duty calls," Diana said, and smiled indulgently when the omega kissed her cheek and went to go fetch his uniform. There was no greater honor than serving one's country. It's what Diana admired in Steve and Audrey and the other lovers she'd taken since leaving Themiscyra. Proof that loyalty is not bound by the Amazons alone, and that one day... one day her family can see how honorable the rest of the world could be.)

\--

Barry wasn’t sure if he was gratified, annoyed or disturbed when the next Justice League meeting happened and he had to face the Big Three head-on. Clark looked a bit frazzled and a whole lot embarrassed, but he wasn’t a kryptonite-colored smear on the ground so he must have been one hell of a fuck. Diana was courteous and business-like and was completely unabashed at the hickeys visibly marring her neck.

Bruce looked about the same as usual. Then again, most of the guy’s body was covered in black cloth anyway and half a face wasn’t a lot of face to go on. But seeing as he wasn’t snarling and growling at anyone—in other words, he was acting more like his usual self—meant Diana had probably gotten through to Nightwing and had him take care of business.

They all sat there awkwardly. For some reason, they were staring at Barry.

Spooked, Barry stuffed a donut into his mouth and slid down in his seat.

“You know, if you guys don’t want something like this to happen again, how ‘bout diversifying the team,” Hal told Batman point-blank. “Like c'mon, one little powder keg knocked out our Big Three just because you're all alpha?"

"There _is_ a lack of omegas on this team," Hawkwoman said, crossing her arms. "And beta girls. Girls in general."

"Agreed," Diana said.

Hal ignored them: "Imagine if Barry’d been an alpha too. Stranded in subspace for god knows how long…”

“Dick would come running for Bruce within a few days,” Clark said, “and Lex would come after me within a week.”

“And you, Diana?” Hal turned to the warrior princess and seemed taken aback when she gave him a defiant look.

“I would not require assistance in this matter, Green Lantern. I would strike down my enemies and pilot the ship and my comrades to safety.”

Hal looked at Diana. He looked at Bruce and Clark.

Then, undoubtedly remembering Diana’s diplomatic if not violent self on the spaceship, he conceded the point.

“Yeah, okay,” he said. “But think about it, will you? Maybe we should have a rule where at least half the team needs to be a different dynamic. Unless you really wanna get stuck with just Barry again if things go south..."

Barry wanted to jump in and defend himself, but that would draw undue attention. It was taking all his effort not to think of Lex Luthor tipping his head back in ecstasy. Actually talking to Clark was going to make that so much worse. So, _so_ much worse.

Batman, however, was a man of surprises. In a surprisingly gracious twist, he said: “The Flash performed admirably given the circumstances. Having him or any other member of this team by my side when I need it… I’m grateful. But your logic is sound, Hal. In fact, we were considering inducting new members of the League by the end of this year. Change will be... good. Even if I find our current relationship satisfactory.”

“Are you saying you actually _like us_ ,” Hal laughed, and Barry threw a donut at his head. Bats was going to spend his time trying to prove Hal wrong now, and god knows how that'll affect their mission.

"Star City to Watchtower. Got a lead on some craziness going on down to Africa," Green Arrow appeared on the communication monitor. The frown on his face meant he was probably under duress. "I mean I think we can handle it, but Dinah wants a second opinion."

"The fate of the world is at stake, Ollie," the Black Canary's voice overrode him from somewhere off-screen.

"Always is," Barry muttered once again like a mantra— and then just like that, the Justice League was off.

**Author's Note:**

> why did I write this I have no idea I have so much work to do


End file.
